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Forum to discuss general SalesLogix import and data migration topics. View the code of conduct for posting guidelines.
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Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 05 Aug 06 12:09 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d I'll put this in the "Imports" forum although I'm looking for opinions on using Scribe for routine data transfer between systems.
It seems to me that I can find many users who did initial data imports with Scribe but few (none so far) who have Scribe running on a scheduled basis to transfer data between their ERP and SLX databases.
We are looking at it both for the daily transfer of product data between ERP and SLX as well as time-to-time trade show and web lead imports.
If you have Scribe in production, please some offer comments on the following areas (i) skill level of the admin; (ii) how training was accomplished; (iii) value for the $$; (iv) if starting over, would you again choose Scribe?
Also, if any of you out there are privvy to future SLX data transfer capabilities (like does Scribe become redundant) please offer your thoughts. |
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 05 Aug 06 5:08 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d I still use it for initial customer demo loads, and small initial loads. The driving factors here are its ability to do update/inserts, and its User Interface.
I did use it at 2 clients for ongoing loads.
One client stopped using Scribe 2+ years ago. This is a complex monthly net change import that proccess over 2 million records. Scribe took 30 + hours to process the records. To get the performance we need (<12hours) I wrote a custom program in Visual Basic.
The other client recently upgraded from Slx 5.2 to Slx 6.2.4 and stopped using Scribe because SalesLogix stopped providing Scribe. The client created SQL DTSes to import.
Regardless of how Scribe promotes it, I view it as a RAD Import proto-typing tool. The big drawback is its slowness.
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 07 Aug 06 9:43 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d We have 5 or 6 nightly jobs in production using scribe. The plus is the drag and drop ability to modify these jobs, add fields etc, and monitor results via an execution log.
From the easily created reject files, you can design Crystal exception reports. Scribe has ability to run pre and post vbscript, batch or sql jobs and to chain these together if necessary.
There have been numerous Scribe upgrades for the saleslogix 6.2 compatible version. And these upgrades are necessary to get the benefits needed.
Tech support from Scribe has been good and I took their online tutorial to learn. The best part, but hardest to get configured properly is the Console that allows you to monitor jobs while not local at the server. |
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 08 Aug 06 1:57 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d and on the down side...
Scribe gets pretty 'upset' if there is any connectivity issues with the SLX Provider. It will appear to be fine, but in truth, the scheduler will be down thus jobs are not run. Sooo, you have that added double threat of Scribe requiring an extra little 'TLC' / maintainence and knowing you will have to interrupt Production services to get everything running smoothly again. (Dropping just Scribe services are not enough, you must drop the SLX as well)
However, for rapid development - it is quick - but not too robust. Personally, I don't care for the product that much. But a number of folks do. Training on line is fairly inexpensive; tool is easy to learn. (Do you sense another 'BUT" coming?) BUT, it is not 'standardized' per se. i.e. IsNull doesn't work, however using the IsError will give you the IsNull results you need. IMHO using Scribe can be frustrating at times.
Ryan Farley has a product that looked promising.
c |
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 08 Aug 06 3:43 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d I am WAY too familiar with Scribe. We've been using it for three years running more than twenty jobs several times an hour all day long to synchronize our production database with a separate SLX database. I have to go along with the downside comments. Scribe is a seemingly attractive tool that entices you with a fairly sophisticated GUI and a number of powerful features. You don't start to realize its problems until you've been working with it a while.
Problems are: as mentioned, it is SLOW. If you are a VERY skillful Scribe programmer you can work your way around most, but not all, of the performance issues. As mentioned, it is not very reliable. There are some annoying bugs in the Workbench which have never been fixed no matter what version you use. There are certain circumstances under which it will leak memory. The DTSEdit utility has an annoying habit of corrupting your DTS files. As mentioned, some things just don't work and it's trial and error to learn how to avoid things that screw up and stick to things that don't. As mentioned, it is finicky about database connections. The operative word is "frustrating". It's **almost** a good product, but in the end, I put it in the "avoid if at all possible" category. Unfortunately, the one thing it does do is understand the intricacies of the SLX database schema and it ensures that whatever you tell it to do, it will, behind the scenes, ensure that you don't mess up the SLX database. In retrospect, it would have been easier to figure out how to do that myself than figure out how to overcome Scribe's many deficiencies.
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 09 Aug 06 10:12 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d We've had Scribe for several years and have used it only for imports lists. Seems to do a good job there, but as others said, it can be slow. We got it when wer first got SLX (6.0) and the Workbench was included. We stayed with Scribe after SLX dropped it in the upgrade. This was because it worked and we were looking into other features for its use.
Actually, our maintenance is due so if there is any other product we should look at (I heard Ryan's name mentioned earlier)... I'd like to know what those other products would be.
As it is... we are going to go forward with using Scribe to import XML from a webpage that collects data from prospects that fill out the form. Has anyone used Scribe in this fashion (maybe used the Lead Pak or Web Pak?)
Thanks,
John G. |
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 09 Aug 06 2:47 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Yes, I have experience with this one too. The client already owned it so it was used for initial load/conversion. They make adaptors for Slx, ACT!, GoldMine, MSCRM, etc. Worked good for my project.
Couple of interesting things:
1.) You can rent the software for short period of time,
2.) Inaport offers inhouse resources to assist with tasks.
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 09 Aug 06 3:01 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d InaPort is now the "official" integration tool for SalesLogix. An announcement was made to partners (at Insights2006 this past May) and it will be available via your BP. I do not know what the pricing will be.. hopefully better than purchasing direct.
--
rjl |
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 10 Aug 06 9:23 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d We have been using Scribe for years. I have dozens of DTS packages running hourly and nightly to do inserts/updates/deletes. I also have dozens of collaborations and monitors running as much as every 30 seconds. We move data in and out of SLX to Great Plains, Clarify, Changepoint, and other apps/databases daily. As mentioned earlier if you have a network hickup to the slx provider then it does require some TLC. I just have a .vbs script checking the log for the sql call failure and email myself. Then I remote into the box and reboot it. Happens about once a month due to power outages, server reboots, etc. |
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Re: Anyone using Scribe in routine Production?
Posted: 15 Aug 06 8:39 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d
As it is... we are going to go forward with using Scribe to import XML from a webpage that collects data from prospects that fill out the form. Has anyone used Scribe in this fashion (maybe used the Lead Pak or Web Pak?)
Thanks,
John G. |
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Hi John , We have used "knowledgesync" to process XML data for Saleslogix.Whenever there is a ticket opened in saleslogix Knowledgesync would trigger and create the ticket xml and sends it as a parm to a external webservice and get the response from that to process things back in slx.Just wanted to let you know that there is an alternate product which you can choose from...
An advantage for KS is whenever we feel that the tool cannot do its job, we can start creating apps and get it triggered thru the tool which is slx aware too... |
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